Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators Playoff Predictions

We have a saying here at PenguinPoop that “We have more hockey knowledge in our body than you have in your entire pinky“, that just being a little humor and all, the “body” of people writing here at PenguinPoop have probably been to more Penguin games in their lifetime than any other collection of Pittsburgh Penguin writers on the internet.  With that I give you some of our eight contributors predictions of how the Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators playoff series will end up, starting with STH35 who’s been a Penguins season ticket holder for 36 years.

STH35: Predicting the outcome of the Senator-Penguin first round match-up is no easy task.  Ottawa has a decent team, the Penguins have a better one.  I wanted to say that the winner of the series would depend on what Penguin team shows up, but Ottawa has been more of a mystery than Pittsburgh.  They were 8-11 since the Olympic break.  The stretches went like this –  1-8 in the first nine, 7-1 in the next eight, and finished by losing their last two.  Not much consistency there. Eight of their last eleven losses came against non-playoff teams, including twice to Toronto.  The Penguins were 11-9 after the Olympics.  They were also streaky through that stretch — 4-0, then 2-6, and finishing 5-3.  It wasn’t really the wins and losses that were inconsistent that were bothersome.  It was the way they played — long stretches of poor play every game.  Undisciplined penalties took their team out of their game and giveaways galore — all things that can’t be done during the playoffs. I think the Penguins are good enough to understand the weak points in their game, and will do something about it.  Ottawa will not go down easy, as they do have some battlers in their lineup.  Penguins in six – another series won on the road. 

Phil Krundle: I’ve said it a few times this season the the Senators are great looking team, on paper that is. The offensive skill they possess makes them one of the top offensive teams in the NHL and this is what makes this match up scary. The Pens have had two different teams the entire season, one team that shows up and plays incredible hard hustling hockey and another team that lolligags around the ice. I truly believe that we will not see the Penguin lolligagger team on the ice in the playoffs. The Senators leader Daniel Alfredsson is one of the best divers in the NHL, but with the Penguins penalty kill playing the way they are, that should negate his Greg Louganis ancestry. Which brings up the Penguins powerplay. I have never been a person to yell shoot the puck at a Penguin game and I never will be. So I’m saying it now. SHOOT THE PUCK. Studies done by people high up in the NHL have determined that shooting the puck is the best way to score goals. This is odd to say with such a young team, but the Penguins have the upper hand in playoff experience. Throw in the the Senators poor defensive play and them not having a goaltender that has ever played a game in the NHL playoffs the Pens win a not very hard fought series in 5 games.

Southside Shultzie: There has been a phenomena for years where ex Penguins players score at will against us.  For that to hold true in the Pens opening playoff series vs Ottawa it will be up to Jarko Ruutu.  The torn ACL suffered by Alex Kovalev will prevent him from scoring at all this playoff season but don’t count out the Senators!  There is an old saying about an injured dog being the most vicious!  Jason Spezza has been a notorious pain in the arse for the Penguins as is Daniel Alfredsson.  That said, I’m calling the Pens in a hard fought 7 game series! I’m also calling that Ottawa’s 3rd jersey is among the worst in the NHL.  “SENS”?  If they wear that sweater I am calling for a shutout 4-0 by the Pens!

Jean Pronovost:  The Pens enter the 2009/2010 playoffs matched up against the Ottawa Senators for the third time in four years with each team having won one of the previous two meetings.  The Pens split their season series against Ottawa this year 2 – 2 with each team winning once and losing once at home.  The only game that I could find any kind of aberration in was the Penguins 8 – 2 victory at Mellon Arena on December 23, a game that featured the return of goalie Pascal Leclaire after an extended absence due to a knee injury followed up by being hit in the face with a puck while sitting on the bench.  His extended absence was noticed quickly as the Pens put 5 pucks past him in succession in the second period before he was ...

Gameday Poop: Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators – January 28

Game time is 7:00PM and can be seen in Super HD at the Igloo or on FSN 

The Pens take on the red hot Ottawa Senators who have won their last seven games in a row tonight. Maybe I should say the streaky Senators. Before they won seven in a row they lost 5 in a row.

When everyone was looking the other way the Senators double secretly amassed quite a lineup of goal scorers Alfredsson, Kovalev, Spezza & CheeChoo all of which have decided to not score goals this year. Now that the Senators are healthy, no thanks to the Penguins, they come at teams with a 4 line balanced attack. When your 3rd line has one time 56 goal scorer 29 year old Jonathan CheeChoo on it, that’s a balanced attack.

With all of the Penguins injuries, Goligoski, Talbot, Guerin, Kunitz, Kennedy and Godard. It would be hard to tell you exaclty who will be in this evening’s lineup but I can tell you that the Pens have penciled in Guerin, Talbot & Godard and the rest are not listed and I can also tell you that Godard, Goligoski and Kennedy did not practice this morning. 

Dan Bylsma announced that Godard is out 4-6 weeks with a groin injury.   I think the Olympic break is going to be huge towards getting a healthy team back on the ice.

Chris Connors was recalled again, they are bouncing him up and down to save cap money, it sounds like Shero is planning on making a move, though there is one other possibility.  I think Shero noticed that when he brings a player up from the WBS Pens they usually score their first game up, to take advantage of that he is trying to send them up and down in between every game. It could work. The odd thing is that  ...